My latest column for the National Sports Journalism Center at Indiana University provides a glimpse into what will take place during the Pro Football Hall of Fame selection meeting Saturday. While the process isn’t perfect, it is much better than what occurs in baseball.

From the column:

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The 2014 Pro Football Hall of Fame class will be unveiled Saturday. Here are some things you won’t be hearing about the selection process.

*Griping that many voters haven’t covered a game in years and aren’t qualified to vote.

*Outrage over the NFL’s equivalent of Jacque Jones, a marginal player, getting a HOF vote.

*Refusal of voters to give a nod to players linked to steroids.

*A disgruntled selector allowing fans to determine his vote via Deadspin.

Nope, unlike their baseball counterparts, the NFL selection process isn’t likely to create headlines this weekend. However, like everything else, it hardly is perfect.

Leonard Shapiro was part of the NFL HOF selection committee for 29 years. Now on the outside, the former Washington Post football writer sheds some light on his experience.

“It’s a fascinating process,” Shapiro said. “When I came out of the meetings, I felt a combination of exhilarated and ticked off. It was frustrating when qualified players didn’t get in. Yet it felt satisfying to help get some good people in there.”

The process works this way. A preliminary list of 150 candidates is whittled down to 15 finalists. Then on the Saturday prior to the Super Bowl, there is a meeting where a special panel of football reporters debate and then vote for the eventual entrants into the Hall of Fame.

This year, there are 46 people on the committee; one representative from each city in the NFL along with at-large experts like ESPN’s John Clayton and Sports Illustrated’s Peter King.

Therein lies a big difference between baseball, which had 575 voters for the Hall of Fame this year, and some with questionable credentials. That isn’t the case with the NFL, where Shapiro says the voters have at least 15 years on the beat. And they currently are active in covering the sport.

“It’s a really, really good group of people,” Shapiro said.

During the meeting, the person from the finalist’s city makes a 2-3 minute presentation to the group. Then the panel discusses whether the player did enough to merit being in Canton.

Again, another big difference from baseball. Shapiro said the debates did impact his opinions, one way or another.

“In baseball, you get a ballot, and boom, they vote. There’s no discussion,” Shapiro said. “Here, it’s a free and open discussion. You’re supposed to be honest. If a guy in Seattle saw a player 16 times a year compared someone else who saw him only one or two times, that’s a great help. There were times when I thought a player was a dead-solid cinch, and other people would talk about him, and I’d say, ‘I never thought about that.’ It made you think.”

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Here’s the link with more, including Shapiro’s concerns about a lack of transparency in the process.